sawatch – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 7.95 miles

Elevation Gain: 2429’

I drove up from my camping spot to the Independence Lake trailhead that morning, and was on the trail at 5am. The trailhead has plenty of parking, and even a bathroom, but parking spots fill up fast. The trailhead is obvious, and starts at the north end of the parking area.

I quickly came to a junction and headed towards Lost Man Lake

I followed this class 1 trail to Independence Lake, crossing over Roaring Fork River on a nice placing of rocks

Then continued following the trail to the saddle

It was about 2.5 miles to the saddle. From here, I could see PT 13006. I lost 472’ of elevation as I descended towards (and past) Lost Man Lake. This remained a class 1 trail.

At about 12320 feet of elevation, I left the trail and headed towards the ridge. This is the overall route I took to the summit of 13006.

First, to gain the ridge. The willows were avoidable.

Once on the ridge, I turned left, and crossed a few rock slabs. They were class 2, but now is a good time to put on your helmet.

From here on out, I stayed to the left of the ridge. My first objective was to make it here.

I rounded the rock formation to the left

This brought me to some large boulders I had to climb. This was the ‘crux’ of the climb. The boulders are fairly stable, but far apart. I rock-hopped up and across them.

The rest of the hike to the base of the summit was class 2 on tundra. I kept to the left of the ridge, following grassy slopes.

At the base of the summit block, I had about 20 feet of solid class 3 scrambling to do to make it to the summit.

I summited PT 13006 at 7am

PT 13006:

Here’s looking back at the route from the saddle. This is Lost Man Lake

This was an out and back hike, so I descended the same way I ascended. Here are some pictures as I made my way back down the ridge

Then it was back down to the trail

I followed the trail as it skirted Lost Man Lake and climbed it’s way to the saddle

Then continued following it past Independence Lake, all the way back to the trailhead.

I made it back to the trailhead at 9am, making this a 7.95 mile hike with 2429’ of elevation gain in 4 hours.

On to the next trailhead!

RT Length: 13.25 miles

Elevation Gain: 4934’

Partner: Steffen

We pulled up to the South Mt Elbert trailhead at 5am and were ready to go soon after. There were about 5 vehicles already in the lot, and we were now worried we’d started too late and eager to get started

On our last (failed) attempt of Mt Elbert in winter we took the trail, but this time we hiked in microspikes along the 4WD road/Colorado Trail for 1.75 miles to the upper trailhead. I would recommend hiking the road instead of the trail.

The road was passable for about a mile in 4WD vehicle, and then it became solely a hiking trail. I was glad I’d parked at the lower trailhead.

At the upper trailhead we turned right, crossed the bridge, and continued along the Colorado Trail for another quarter mile

This trail is really well marked, and the trench was nice and solid

After a quarter mile we came to the Colorado Trail/South Mt Elbert Trail junction and continued on the South Mt Elbert Trail

This well maintained trail took us to treeline

Here there was a lot more snow so we decided it was time to put on our snowshoes. The sun was also rising and we could put away the flashlight. Here’s looking back at Mt Elbert Forebay and Twin lakes

From treeline here’s the route up Mt Elbert.

Not long after making it to treeline we passed a hiker and wondered where everyone else was who’d been parked at the trailhead? There were at least 5 other vehicles there, and we only saw this one hiker along the ridge. Seemed curious.

The wind picked up as we hiked up the ridge. The forecast said 15-20mph winds, but we felt they were much higher here

Snowshoes were useful until about halfway up the ridge, and then they weren’t really needed. I kept mine on because the wind had picked up and I didn’t want to take off my gloves to take off my snowshoes. Steffen offered to help, but I was worried I’d need to put them back on again and honestly didn’t mind hiking wearing them, so I kept them on.

This was a simple ridge hike. I don’t do well with breaks (my feet lose function so I can’t stop) and since there weren’t any obstacles I hiked ahead of Steffen at a slow and steady pace while he took breaks as needed. I kept looking behind me to make sure he was still on track. I was excited to see the sign on top, indicating the summit was near.

At the saddle I decided to slow down and wait for Steffen so we could summit together. The only problem? It was super windy. So windy the wind kept knocking me down. So I decided to crouch down behind this rock and take in the Massive view while I waited for Steffen to catch up. Luckily he wasn’t too far behind

When he made it to the small saddle we turned and headed towards the summit together

It was a blue skies kind of day, but extremely windy on top. I’m proud of Steffen: this is his second 14er, and second in winter. It was weird having someone else there to take my picture: I had to crouch down because I kept getting blown over.

We didn’t stay long on the summit due to the wind. Steffen teaches skydiving, and was pretty sure the winds were closer to 50+mph than 20mph. It was nice having someone else there to verify the wind speed and let me know I wasn’t crazy for thinking it was higher than forecasted. The winds lessened as we hiked down the ridge. Here’s the way we took back

Along with the wind came some pretty cool clouds. I took off my snowshoes for most of the ridge descent.

About halfway down the ridge we began seeing other hikers. Tons of other hikers. They were like ants, marching their way up the mountain, and must have been sleeping in their vehicles when we made it to the trailhead.

Once we made it back to the snow we both put our snowshoes back on: we were postholing and it soon became evident the return route would be miserable without them. We were glad we’d started when we did: in a couple of hours this would be posthole city.